Play style in tonight’s game

[Baz=Heisman]

My one real gripe about tonight is we did not take the air out of the ball and limit possessions.

I said it to the guy next to me… why are we not shooting under 10 seconds every time? Similar to Carmody’s game plan in games against super talented teams.

Would we have won if we did? Probably not because UConn is so talented but Chris not adjusting our style of play when we played an Uber talented “run and gun” team was a major coaching blunder. (And I admit I was wrong on him… he’s a great coach.)

 

[freewillie07]

Because we couldn’t get good looks in half court sets, fell behind badly early and needed to score somehow to get back in the game.

 

[SDakaGordie]

My one real gripe about tonight is we did not take the air out of the ball and limit possessions.

I said it to the guy next to me… why are we not shooting under 10 seconds every time? Similar to Carmody’s game plan in games against super talented teams.

Would we have won if we did? Probably not because UConn is so talented but Chris not adjusting our style of play when we played an Uber talented “run and gun” team was a major coaching blunder. (And I admit I was wrong on him… he’s a great coach.)

Did you see how many layups and short, open shots we missed in the early part of the game? We were not playing fast. They made us beat them with our less talented scorers. And we played some awful transition defense.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

When we saw a good luck against that defense, we had to take it. Honestly if they’d shot a normal percentage in the first half off their decent looks, which they got some of, it’s a closer game.

 

[Baz=Heisman]

I still don’t think you can expect to play that pace all game and win. Your margin is so much smaller. Sometimes you gotta “yuck it up” and that should have been tonight IMO.

 

[CatManTrue]

I still don’t think you can expect to play that pace all game and win. Your margin is so much smaller. Sometimes you gotta “yuck it up” and that should have been tonight IMO.

UConn’s guards bottled up Boo better than anyone has. They were really impressive defensively.

Even if we had wanted to run the office and grind out the clock, UConn wasn’t having it.

 

[AdamOnFirst]

UConn’s guards bottled up Boo better than anyone has. They were really impressive defensively.

Even if we had wanted to run the office and grind out the clock, UConn wasn’t having it.

I’m also not so sure we played at a fast tempo. Seemed like a pretty normal number of shots and possessions per half except for the occasions where UConn boatraced us for easy layups

 

[phatcat]

UConn’s guards bottled up Boo better than anyone has. They were really impressive defensively.

Even if we had wanted to run the office and grind out the clock, UConn wasn’t having it.

This, and then collapsed on him in the key because nobody else was scoring, either. Same as Wisconsin did but more effective

 

[Baz=Heisman]

I’m also not so sure we played at a fast tempo. Seemed like a pretty normal number of shots and possessions per half except for the occasions where UConn boatraced us for easy layups

I’ll go back and track the game but I’d like to see how many times we shot the ball above 15 on the shot clock versus 5 and under…

 

[Purple Pile Driver]

This, and then collapsed on him in the key because nobody else was scoring, either. Same as Wisconsin did but more effective

UConn funneled Boo right to that big monster in the middle. They really only had to guard his 3 point shot and that they did.

 

[loyolacat]

as people have pointed out they put a big guard on Boo and he still got to the hoop but Clingan was a little different in his mobility compared to some of the other centers...he had 8 blocks and altered others....as well as their overall length also stopped the alternative kick outs or dumps to the center (missed Nicholson here and on high pick and rolls) but we have struggled b4 and stayed in games with our defense but man we missed a ton of defensive assignments and gave them a ton of easy hoops. I mean they were 3 for 22 from 3....dont know if we altered something or if they ran new sets or just having one day to prepare made a difference but that defense in the first half..yikes.....great season though

 

[Just Gary]

as people have pointed out they put a big guard on Boo and he still got to the hoop but Clingan was a little different in his mobility compared to some of the other centers...he had 8 blocks and altered others....as well as their overall length also stopped the alternative kick outs or dumps to the center (missed Nicholson here and on high pick and rolls) but we have struggled b4 and stayed in games with our defense but man we missed a ton of defensive assignments and gave them a ton of easy hoops. I mean they were 3 for 22 from 3....dont know if we altered something or if they ran new sets or just having one day to prepare made a difference but that defense in the first half..yikes.....great season though

First of all UConn is tremendously talented. They jumped on us early before we could adjust to their play. They also concentrated on our shooters daring the other players to pick up the slack. We could have done better with Nicholson and Berry but I still think we would have lost. Only fault I saw was not using the timeouts early to change what we were doing to defend them. Other than they, the better and more talented team won that game. Kudos to the Cats for winning the first round with the players we had. Hopefully we can get a couple of talented players in the portal to make another run.

 

[clarificationcat]

as people have pointed out they put a big guard on Boo and he still got to the hoop but Clingan was a little different in his mobility compared to some of the other centers...he had 8 blocks and altered others....as well as their overall length also stopped the alternative kick outs or dumps to the center (missed Nicholson here and on high pick and rolls) but we have struggled b4 and stayed in games with our defense but man we missed a ton of defensive assignments and gave them a ton of easy hoops. I mean they were 3 for 22 from 3....dont know if we altered something or if they ran new sets or just having one day to prepare made a difference but that defense in the first half..yikes.....great season though

In his press conference, Hurley said the only way he thought they could lose was if we hit a lot of 3’s. So they fought over every screen and tried to funnel everything to the 5 (his words). We certainly missed Nicholson but he’s not an offensive threat other than on uncontested shots. Their bigs never really had to worry about cheating on Buie. If Hunger could hit 3’s, that would have helped a lot. It would be great if we can recruit a big that is a true offensive threat in addition to anchoring the defense.